


Cautionary tale

by Aviss



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Character Study, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-05-10 12:41:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5585749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aviss/pseuds/Aviss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Starkiller, Finn becomes a cautionary tale among the troopers.</p><p>This doesn't always work in the First Order's favour.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cautionary tale

**Author's Note:**

> So I watched Star Wars, and this happened. I am absolutely in love with these two, the are the cutest thing I have ever seen. This is unbetaed, apologies for any mistakes.

After the Starkiller, Finn becomes a cautionary tale among the troopers. 

His denomination is spoken in whispers:  _ FN-2187, the traitor. _

He was a coward, they say, unable to do his duty, of killing and dying for the First Order. He freed Poe Dameron, the Resistance pilot, from where Kylo Ren had captured him. He joined forces with the scavenger and Han Solo. He joined the Resistance, killed his brothers, and led the attack on the Starkiller. He threatened Captain Phasma and almost killed her, and fought against Kylo Ren.

Without him, the whispers say, the Resistance would be no more. Without him, the scavenger would have died, or joined the First Order, and the Jedi would disappear. 

Without the traitor the First Order would already be victorious. 

This is repeated among the troopers, always in whispers, away from Kylo Ren and his tantrums. Away from Hux and his perpetual scowl. Away from Captain Phasma and her reconditioning. 

This is what they say, to remind themselves of what they are and what they might never become. They are loyal to the First Order, and they will not become traitors. 

But sometimes one trooper will hear something different in those words. 

They will hear a name:  _ Finn _ , spoken in even softer whispers. And that trooper will wonder at that name, and about what they would feel if they had one of his own. And maybe that trooper will look at the people fighting against them and think that Finn is there, a person with a name and a will among other people with names and wills, and will fight for breath in a helmet that is suddenly constricting. 

Sometimes a trooper will pretend to be hit during a fight, and keep on pretending until the First Order departs leaving all their dead behind. They will wait for hours, for days, for entire lifetimes, until they move again and remove their uniform. They will go down as RD-9567 and stand up as Roy, and look for the resistance, for Finn.

They will become a person.

… 

There is always movement in the Resistance base, always something to do and people coming and going. It is not so strange to get transports filled with new recruits, especially after the destruction of the Republic and their latest victories against the First Order. 

Finn likes seeing people join their ranks, likes seeing people fight for what is right. Poe usually laughs at him and tells him he just wants to have an excuse not to find his own room, but he clings all the tighter to Finn at night, so he doesn't have a leg to stand on. Not really.

They are in the hangar, running some repair on Poe's X-wing to get it ready for the next mission, when Finn hears his name. 

"Finn? He's over there."

He turns in time to see someone walking to him, and there is something in that person's gait, something familiar that is making Finn's hair stand on end. He recognizes it a second before the person, the boy, reaches him, and he grips his blaster, not pointing it at the boy yet. 

"Finn?" the boy asks, stopping a couple of feet from him, and this close he can see him clearly. The boy can't be older than Finn himself, probably a couple of years younger, and he's staring at him with dark eyes full of awe, as if Finn is the most wonderful thing he has seen in his life. It is a look he has seen a couple of times on Poe's eyes, that he knows is in his own eyes when he looks a Poe. This boy is a stranger, though, but the way he stands and the way he walked before, that is all trooper. He confirms it a second later when he breaths out. " _FN-2187_?"

Poe is by his side in an instant, his own blaster in his hand. The boy doesn't even spare him a look. 

"I am RD-9567," the boy begins, and then he shakes his head, his expression annoyed. "No.  _ I am Roy _ . I have a name, and it is Roy."

Finn feels all the breath leaving his lungs at once. Next to him Poe is looking at the boy, his lips pulling up in a smile, and he is holstering his blaster. 

"They talk about you, the traitor, all the time. They say that without you the Resistance would have been destroyed by the Starkiller, that the First Order would be victorious if you had not betrayed them." And that is something he has heard before, from Poe and Rey, and even the General once when he was feeling bad and useless during his recovery. But never like this, never from someone like him. He can't breathe, can do anything but stare stupidly at this young boy who has broken free from the First Order like he did."You broke your programming, and got a name. And I thought, maybe I could get a name too. Like you did. Maybe I can help too."

The boy, Roy, is looking nervous now, probably at Finn's silence. He needs to do something, move from where he rooted to the floor. 

"You can,  _ Roy _ ," Poe is the one to speak, and Roy looks at him for the first time, his face lightening up in recognition. 

"Welcome to the Resistance, Roy," Finn finally says, his voice rough and choked. "Maybe they will talk about you too soon." Roy rushes up to him and hugs him before rushing away, and Finn just stays there, staring dumbly at the space he was occupying before. 

He doesn't notice when Poe approaches him, but he notices the embrace, and the wide smile pressed against his cheek. He hadn't even noticed that his cheeks were wet. 

"See. I always told you you were a hero."

He hangs on to Poe tight, pressing his face against his shoulder while he cries, and thinks that maybe now he can believe it. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm in [tumblr](http://aviss.tumblr.com/)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Cautionary tale [podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7468965) by [Aviss](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aviss/pseuds/Aviss), [Carpe_History](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carpe_History/pseuds/Carpe_History)




End file.
